Case Number 22343

3 WOMEN (BLU-RAY) CRITERION COLLECTION

The Charge

1 woman became 2 / 2 women became 3 / 3 women became 1.

Opening Statement

"What is this place? Disneyland?!"

Facts of the Case

Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek, Carrie) has just moved to California from a
small town in rural Texas. She's landed a job working at an assisted living
facility, where she meets the chatty, somewhat self-absorbed Millie Lammoreaux
(Shelley Duvall, The Shining). The two strike up a friendship of sorts,
and soon Pinky finds herself moving into Millie's apartment and splitting the
rent. However, after a tift between the two girls takes a nasty turn, both women
find their lives dramatically altered in strange, unexpected ways.

The Evidence

It can be persuasively argued that the window of time between the late 1960s
and late 1970s represents the most adventurous, wildly experimental era in the
history of cinema (at least in terms of narrative and thematic content). It was
an era in which distinctive filmmakers like Robert Altman thrived, as they were
given often free reign to explore ambitious ideas. During the early years of his
career, Altman threw out one great film after another at lightning speed: within
seven years, he had delivered M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller,
Nashville, Images, Thieves Like Us, The Long
Goodbye, and California Split. Altman was on such a roll (despite the
costly speed bump that was Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's
History Lesson) that he managed to convince 20th Century Fox to greenlight
3 Women before he even had a completed script.

If the movie was rushed into production and thrown together in a seemingly
haphazard fashion, perhaps it's because Altman felt a need to commit his vision
to film before it faded. The idea for 3 Women came to Altman in a dream,
though in this case the word "idea" encompasses the casting, the
story, the tone, and the look of the movie. Altman even told the executives at
Fox he would probably make the film without even finishing the screenplay and
wasn't sure how it would end, but his passion and established skill represented
all the persuading they required. He handed his fragmented ideas over to writer
Patricia Resnick (she would pen another peculiar tale for Altman a couple years
later with Quintet), who in turn arranged them into a 50-page treatment
which Altman used as a springboard while shooting.

The resulting picture is one of cinema's greatest "dream movies,"
employing nocturnal logic as it wanders into increasingly surreal territory.
Creating a movie that feels like a dream might sound like an easy task, as
dreams aren't subject to the restrictive rules of reality or traditional
storytelling. Even so, actually capturing the feeling that everything has a very
specific significance you can't quite put your finger on is immensely tricky.
Altman pulls off that particular feat with aplomb, diving into scenes which are
incomprehensible from a logical perspective but feel just right. I don't know
what the ending means, and yet I do. Making something simultaneously feel
impenetrably vague and deeply significant without making that same thing feel
pretentious, empty, or exasperating is an accomplishment worthy of vigorous
applause. Others have done it -- I'd make a case for David Lynch's Inland
Empire and Mulholland Drive, Anthony Hopkins' Slipstream, and
Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder, though your mileage may very -- but none
quite so skillfully as Altman.

The first hour of 3 Women is quite straightforward, taking its time
introducing us to the characters and allowing us to become familiar with their
idiosyncrasies. Duvall and Spacek are allowed the freedom to create, and they
give characters which feel so much more fully developed than most. Millie is the
sort of girl who seems eager to talk to everyone, but most ignore her and some
even openly mock her. She seems oblivious to much of this, continuing about her
day in a state of unfazed cheer. Pinky is the one girl who hangs onto every word
Millie says, and yet Millie seems dismissive of her. Pinky's undivided attention
causes her to look inferior in Millie's eyes; a view perhaps rooted in Millie's
fractured notion that people who so clearly dislike her are actually her
friends. Many of Duvall and Spacek's scenes together are warm and funny, yet
they are often underscored with atonal notes which suggest something sinister on
the horizon. And the third woman? That would be Willie (Janice Rule, The
Swimmer), a humorless, sad-eyed pregnant woman who says nothing and spends
her days painting terrifying murals. Her significance is late to reveal itself,
but the fact that the title places her on equal ground with Pinky and Willie is
a clue to the emphasis Altman places on symbolic storytelling.

At one point, it's revealed that Pinky's real name is Mildred. Naturally,
that's also Millie's birth name. It's the most explicit of Altman drops that
these women are connected, though the manner in which they are is perhaps the
film's most tantalizing mystery. Are they all parts of a three-piece
human-shaped puzzle? Is Millie really Mildred and Mildred really Willie and
Willie really Millie? Is the story a dream of one of these characters? If so,
which one? Is it the combined dreams of all three women? Which scene belongs to
which? Altman concludes his tale with a surreal masterstroke; one of those rare
"Rosebud" endings that supplies so much and yet so little, in a manner
which is cathartic and leaves one pondering its depths long afterwards. This is
not a film to be understood in a traditional sense. Like a great work of modern
art, 3 Women is meant to be considered rather than explained.

3 Women arrives on Blu-ray sporting a decent 1080p/2.35:1 transfer.
This is one of those '70s flicks which has always looked a little dingy, but
Criterion has restored it to an impressive degree. It's also one of Altman's
most visually striking films, and benefits from robust colors, considerably
improved detail and a notable absence of scratches or flecks. However, there are
a few instances of minor print damage and some moments of noise during a few
darker scenes. The LPCM 1.0 audio is excellent, spotlighting an unnerving score
with strength and clarity. As with many of Altman's films, this one has a number
of noteworthy lines which are barely heard in the background or mumbled under a
character's breath. As such, it's valuable to have a track as clean and crisp as
this. The mix picks up on every little nuance and allows viewers to fully
appreciate the details the film captures. A limited supplemental package is
ported over from the DVD release: a wonderful commentary with Altman (one of the
director's best solo tracks), some trailers and TV spots, a photo gallery, and a
leaflet (as opposed to the usual booklet) offering an essay by David
Sterritt.

Closing Statement

3 Women remains one of Robert Altman's most experimental and rewarding
efforts. Here's hoping Criterion brings more of his work to hi-def soon.